I'm personally a huge fan of the Remington 870. I own both a hunting, and tactical model of their shotgun. I also own a Stevens Model 350 (China made, imported by Stevens brand), and it's been a flawless gun. I bought the Stevens back in 2010 brand new for $175 on clearance from a local dealer (they have the same gun in stock again, but are selling it for $249.99). I recently picked up the Remington 870 tactical up from a local Walmart for $348.00. Plus Remington has a mail-in $30 mail in rebate going on right now...
http://www.remington.com/pages/news-...romotions.aspx
I also have a used Charles Daly 12ga that started out life as a 28" barrel hunting model. I cut the barrel off at 19", and turned it into a "HD truck gun"